Maori law intersects with a variety of practice areas and you will examine 4 of them with a panel of subject matter experts. Understand the current marine and coastal area (Takutai Moana) regime including proposed amendments. Gain updates on Tikanga in the common law through examination of recent cases. Receive practical guidelines for appearing in the Waitangi Tribunal and the Maori Land Court and examine the Te Ture Whenua Māori Act and updates on Māori land cases and governance matters.

Presenters

Renika Siciliano, Executive Director, McCaw Lewis
Renika leads the firm's exceptional and passionate lawyers in the Te Tiriti o Waitangi and workplace law areas. Renika provides legal and strategic advice to clients across Aotearoa and has extensive experience in matters relating to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Treaty settlement negotiations, Māori governance and iwi disputes. She also has a wealth of knowledge in workplace law, advising on various employment matters for both employers and employees. Renika has experience across various Courts and forums including representing Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki in relation to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki Tribal Trust v Minister of Conservation. She has worked with clients in some of the first substantive matters to be heard under the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act.


Karen Feint KC, Thorndon Chambers
Karen is a highly experienced advocate who takes a principled but pragmatic approach to securing the right outcome for her clients. She has a wide-ranging civil litigation and public law practice, with particular expertise at the interface of Crown and Māori relations - constitutional law, judicial review, equity, indigenous rights, and Treaty of Waitangi law. Karen has appeared as counsel before all levels of the New Zealand courts and in specialist jurisdictions such as the Waitangi Tribunal. Karen was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2019. She has been a barrister at Thorndon Chambers for over ten years, having previously worked at two national law firms. She has a BA/ LLB (First Class Honours) from the University of Otago, and a LLM from the University of Toronto, Canada.


Roimata Smail, Barrister, Roimata Sail Ltd
Roimata Smail (Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui, Ngāti Kotimana, Ngāti Ingarangi) has worked for two decades as a human rights and public law barrister specialising in discrimination against Māori. She has represented iwi, hapū, whānau, urban Māori organisations and Māori owned and governed health and social service providers in the Courts and Waitangi Tribunal. She has also advised on settlement negotiations with the Crown involving the return of ancestral land and acting in litigation and negotiations with the Crown under the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 and the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011. Roimata is also a Treaty educator who has developed experiential workshops on Te Tiriti and the Wai Ako educational website for schools. This year she published a best selling book "Understanding Te Tiriti A Handbook of Basic Facts about Te Tiriti o Waitangi".


Paula Wilson, Associate, Henderson Reeves
Of Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Pakeha and Ngāti Whakaue descent Paula is based at Henderson Reeves in Whangārei. She specialises in Māori Land Law. Prior to joining the Bar in 2017, Paula worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Wellington/Tokyo), the Department of Conservation (Wellington/Whangārei) and Te Mana Motuhake a Rohe o Whangārei (the Whangārei Hapū Claims Collective) in the Waitangi Tribunal Te Paparahi o Te Raki (WAI 1040) hearings.


Thomas Bennion, Barrister, Bennion Law
Tom runs a boutique law firm specialising in public, Treaty and environmental law. He has been a practitioner since 1995 and appears regularly before the Waitangi Tribunal. He was its legal officer in the 1980s. He was involved in several of the recent urgent inquiries. He was a part-time lecturer at Victoria University for 13 years and founded the Māori Law Review in 1994 (now published out of the Victoria University of Wellington Law School).